The Education Revolution (1)

In the first programme, she travels to Silicon Valley, home of the Khan Academy.

The Khan Academy is an online teaching service whose mission is to provide a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere. In Bill Gates’ view, it’s “a radical rethinking of what it means to go to school”. With 10 million users every month logging onto their online videos, Salman Khan – the Academy’s founder – is arguably the most important teacher in the world.

Sarah visits schools that are using technology in revolutionary new ways. And she talks to Nolan Bushnell, the “father of modern video gaming”. His latest venture is a company called BrainRush. Bushnell believes children can learn almost anything through video games.

We meet Rupert Murdoch’s head of education, Joel Klein. His company has developed a tablet that they’re rolling out to schools across America.

We ask is this the future of education? Have traditional teaching methods outlived their usefulness? And how do children learn best?